Jamie McCartney 'The Sum of Our Parts'

McCARTNEY

Jamie McCartney is a British artist who lives and works in Brighton. He trained at Hartford Art School (USA), graduating in 1991. Initially McCartney ran his own forge, making abstract animal sculptures in steel. He subsequently moved into sculpture, prop making and special effects in the film industry, working on feature films such as Blackhawk Down, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Casino Royale. Both his degree in Experimental Studio Art and film industry experience continue to inform his work. No subject is too controversial, nor any process or material off limits.

THE SUM OF OUR PARTS exhibition featured the latest sculptures, photographs and other artworks, focusing on notions of beauty and society’s obsession with the physical self.

Jamie McCartney with The Impossibility of Passion

The Sum Of Our Parts

2012 onwards

Aristotle was right, “The whole is greater that the sum of its parts”.

What Jamie is doing with these assemblages of images of the same parts of literally hundreds of women is analogous in many ways to his infamous Great Wall of Vagina. By their accumulation and juxtaposition the array takes on greater significance than the sum of the individual parts.

These images are collages assembled from literally thousands of individual shots that Jamie created in hundreds of photo sessions over the last ten years with the help of hundreds of volunteer models. Like so many of his works, they take years to assemble. From the highresolution details of the fabrics to the soft presentation of the skin tones, they have an intimate fascination.

These collages may also be commissioned in any size and in any combination and colour tones that appeal.

Printed on special Fuji Pearl paper, light is reflected back through the pigments giving them vibrancy similar to how they appear on screen. They come ready to hang on an aluminium back plate and acrylic face mounting.

Bra Spangled Banners

2016 onwards

A humorous and visually arresting series of national flags made using scanner photography of hundreds of women in underwear. Jamie uses an adapted document scanner as his camera. The process thus deliberately abstracts the body parts in question. It distinguishes his work from conventional photography, and is typical of his experimental methods

Flags are symbolic, as is the act of subverting them. Some of his work uses the emotions people attach to such symbols for socio political effect but this series is just about the joy of making cool visuals. Jamie is not beating you up with a message here. Life’s too short to be serious all the time. They also support a good cause as he has used posters of these pieces for breast cancer awareness fundraising. If your country is not represented here then you may enquire about commissioning any flag of your choosing.

Printed on special Fuji Pearl paper, light is reflected back through the pigments giving them vibrancy similar to how they appear on screen. They come ready to hang on an aluminium back plate and acrylic face mounting.

Bra Spangled Banners

Frech Flag - Liberté Déshabilé Sororité

Flag of the Netherlands

Flag of Norway

Pride - Loud and Proud

and Glory

Flag of Russia

Flag of USA Bra Spangled Banner

Figurative Sculpture 2000 onwards

Jamie usually begins with studies taken directly from the model using a combination of casting and 3d scanning. These processes produce a rapid and accurate template to work from. His portraiture thus begins with highly reprographic detail and then moves away from that into the sculptural phase. He thus always begins with the truth, which remains the foundation of the sculpture. That absolute realism is key to the beauty and believability of the work.

Jamie has been working with the human body throughout his career. Many years working as a sculptor on feature films introduced him to multiple materials and processes. Suitable for indoor or garden settings these pieces are available largely in bronze limited editions but also in a few open editions in framed plaster. However they may also be special ordered in other materials. They may also be commissioned of yourself or for a particular space in your home.

Figurative Sculpture

Ballerina Dreams Resin

Genital Casts

Penis Panels

2012 onwards

These collector’s edition penis panels are constructed from fibreglass casts taken from male volunteers in exactly the same way as The Spice of Life. In fact the majority of them are the same men as in that museum piece. Their presentation is in the same style of satin finish, welded aluminium frames as the vulva panels. They are available in many different layouts but in a limited edition of only six of each.

Despite these genitals being clearly in an aroused state, they are rather more comical than erotic, all waving about at jaunty angles. The whimsical title of the original panel ‘4x4’ is a pun referring to the male ego being inextricable from their dicks and their cars.

Men’s insecurities around their genitals are often informed by images from pornography. It is human nature to want to know where we fit in and this work serves to provide that context. It’s a common response to hear men say – “Ok, now I get what the vagina wall is all about!”

You may also choose to commission panels in any size and shape or multiple panel arrays as well. Your panel can contain random penis casts or you may choose your favourites. They may be cast specifically for you from your own chosen models. Hence even within the editions, each panel may be completely different.

Genital Casts

Genital Casts

Vulva Panels

2012 onwards

These collector’s edition vulva panels are constructed from plaster casts taken from volunteers’ vulvas in exactly the same way as The Great Wall of Vagina. Their presentation is in the same style of satin finish, welded aluminium frames. They are available in many different layouts but in a limited edition of only six of each.

You may also choose to commission panels in any size and shape or multiple panel arrays as well. Your panel can contain random vulva casts or you may choose a selection from Jamie’s ever growing ‘labia library’ or they may be cast specifically for you from your own chosen models. Hence even within the editions, each panel will be completely different.

The miniature panels are small versions of panel 5 from The Great Wall of Vagina. After 3d printing the small panel each individual vagina had to be re sculpted by hand to maintain all the intricate detail. This was a painstaking and technically difficult process. Even though they are small, they’re still 40 things that needed to be accurately portrayed, including miniature piercings etc. These miniature panels represent the same amazing variety as the original casts.

Miniature Panels

Cold Cast Bronze

GWOV Mini Bronze wall mounted

The Great Wall of Vagina

2011

Jamie McCartney’s most famous work was first shown at Hay Hill in 2012. It was the original vulva diversity project that has inspired so many more. Aghast that a male narrative was driving a huge rise in women seeking intimate surgeries, Jamie sought to demonstrate normal genital variety.

The 8 metres long wall sculpture consists of four hundred plaster casts of vulvas, all of them unique, arranged into ten large panels. Jamie set out to make this project as broad and inclusive as possible. The age range of the women is from 18 to 76. Included are mothers and daughters, identical twins, trans men and women as well as a woman pre and post natal and another pre and post labiaplasty and many others.

Vulvas are as different as faces and many people, particularly women, don’t realise that. Featuring in a growing list of sex-educational texts, it is used by medical professionals the world over to reassure women, alleviate genital anxiety and provide context before turning to cosmetic surgery. The latest fashion for so called designer vaginas could easily reverse one day and favour larger labia. This project has been championed as a powerful antidote to insecurity.

Five years in the making and entirely self-funded it typifies Jamie’s determination to produce world-changing socio-political work. It is currently on show in a museum in Lisbon and moves to a museum in Miami later this month.

The Great Wall of Vagina Panel Photographs

Old Glory

‘Old Glory’ is one of many nicknames for the Stars and Stripes. It parodies Jamie’s sexual rebelliousness whilst at art school in the USA. Made up of 335 casts of the tip of his penis. Daft as it may seem, there is, as always, method to his madness. It is deliberately ambiguous, allowing you to draw your own conclusions. He is clearly being whimsical, lampooning the male ego using the ubiquitous symbolism of the American flag. It is an icon depicted by countless artists, either in honour or dissent. This piece comments on the appropriation of symbols and on the artist himself, rather than on the USA, a country he loves and maintains a studio in.

Jamie frequently appropriates powerful symbols for use in his work. The penis is one such potent symbol, which is given weight by our societal obsession with size. Flags are another such symbol, which are designed specifically as a totem to the meaning and power the flag bearer wishes to convey. Symbols are necessary evils and oh so overused in art. Jamie subverts the potency of these symbols by their whimsical juxtaposition.

Jamie’s penis flags are all created in the same way. You may commission any nation.

Internal Affairs

This incredible series of casts were taken (following medical advice) from the inside of the vagina, displaying all the mysteries within. The process to create a continuous cast from inside to outside is very challenging and has never been accomplished before. This unique artwork is absolutely cutting edge, going where no artist has dared to go before and results are stunning. From the polished glass front face you see the details of the vulva, labia, clitoris etc can actually peer inside to the acid polished glass interior vagina. From the reverse you can see all the anatomical details normally hidden from view. The depression on the cervix, the location of the G-spot, the folds of the skin and entrances to the vagina and the urethra etc.

Whereas male sex organs are on show for all to the see, females' are hidden from sight.

With this unique work I have made the invisible visible, using beautiful lead crystal glass casts to convey that that this object represents a space, rather than a solid. The vagina is a potential space, moulding itself to whatever enters, in this case, the casting material. We are curious beings by nature and this work seeks to explore that sexual curiosity what exactly is hidden within? Like The Great Wall of Vagina this sculpture is educational, sensational and beautiful. Jamie's studio is the only place in world making these pieces. This print is on sale for the first time to the public from May 2022.

Internal Affairs

Physical Photography 2012 onwards

For this series of work Jamie developed his own method which of photography, using an adapted document scanner as his camera. This lends a very particular look to the images. It is a decidedly painterly approach, taking photography in its literal sense of ‘painting with light’. He has thrown away the portraiture rulebook to craft these beautiful, abstracted, light paintings of the oldest subject in art – the human body – smudged, blurred, dark, ghostly, sharp, abstracted or over exposed as necessary to render that body as he desires. The resulting images evoke an Old Master style and palette with their soft focus and chiaroscuro modeling of the body. In contrast, though, they are highly contemporary and cutting edge, pushing the equipment beyond its intended purpose. This is an emphatically collaborative and intimate process. The lens is in physical contact with the model as the images are slowly produced. Jamie is thus redefining the relationship and the distance between the photographer, the equipment and the model. The resulting images are honest, intimate and imbued with a strong sense of personality.

It can take hours to shoot all the individual panes to make up a portrait, subverting the blink-like speed of modern photography, reminiscent of a bygone age. It is very physically demanding for artist and model to work in this way, holding the equipment over the body and capturing it piece by piece. Hence the series title, Physical Photography.

This is a new way of looking at the body, at hair, at clothing and at the props and backgrounds he sets up. The effect of the equipment’s contact with some areas is profound, flattening them to an extent dependent on their resistance. An intense, delineated plane is thus created beyond which the rest of the image extends into darkness and soft focus. The high resolution allows us to find beauty in the micro world of flesh and fabric. Printed up to life size or even larger it’s like looking at them through a microscope as well as being able to pull back and reveal the whole image.

Printed on special Fuji Pearl paper, light is reflected back through the pigments giving them vibrancy similar to how they appear on screen. They come ready to hang on an aluminium back plate and acrylic face mounting.

Physical Photography

Anna Karenina

Candice

Catnap

Climb

Doggy

Of The Beach

Exercise Restraint

Fallen Angel

Hoop

Night Swim

Parsva Dhanurasana

Santa Muerte

Shakti

Deep

Step

Surface

The Eel And The Octopus

Yoga

Car-bon Miles

2007

Jamie turned this vehicle into a moving artwork for the UK's first Art Car Parade in 2007. It was awarded the top prize for the most environmentally friendly car. He converted an old East German Trabant, famous for being the most polluting car ever, into a pedal powered vehicle to create the least polluting car ever.

In the 50th anniversary year of the Trabant, the intention was to highlight the problems facing us with increasing vehicle numbers. Using humour to attract attention to the issue is typical of Jamie’s methods to get the public’s attention without beating them up with a message. With this piece he wants them to consider the impact of cars on our environment, our health and our future.

Significant Works

Car-bon Miles

The Great Wall of Vagina

2011

Jamie McCartney’s most famous work was first shown at Hay Hill in 2012. It was the original vulva diversity project that has inspired so many more. Aghast that a male narrative was driving a huge rise in women seeking intimate surgeries, Jamie sought to demonstrate normal genital variety.

The 8 metres long wall sculpture consists of four hundred plaster casts of vulvas, all of them unique, arranged into ten large panels. Jamie set out to make this project as broad and inclusive as possible. The age range of the women is from 18 to 76. Included are mothers and daughters, identical twins, trans men and women as well as a woman pre and post natal and another pre and post labiaplasty and many others.

Vulvas are as different as faces and many people, particularly women, don’t realise that. Featuring in a growing list of sex-educational texts, it is used by medical professionals the world over to reassure women, alleviate genital anxiety and provide context before turning to cosmetic surgery. The latest fashion for so called designer vaginas could easily reverse one day and favour larger labia. This project has been championed as a powerful antidote to insecurity.

Five years in the making and entirely self-funded it typifies Jamie’s determination to produce world-changing socio-political work. It is currently on show in a museum in Lisbon and moves to a museum in Miami later this month.

Significant Works

The Great Wall Of Vagina

The Spice of Life

2006

The Spice of Life was commissioned by Amora, an erstwhile sex-education museum in London. The original intention was to use photography to demonstrate genital variety. Jamie however was convinced that casting was a better approach. It shows the exact scale, neatly sidesteps issues of race, avoids comparison with pornography and presents a rare opportunity to really see what other people are like. Amora was persuaded.

It was in the process of casting the 18 men and 18 women who appear in this piece that Jamie became aware of how anxious many women are about their genital appearance.

Inspired by the effect that seeing these casts was having on his models, Jamie conceived the idea for a larger and inspiring genital artwork to assist women in overcoming their anxieties. The resulting artwork became known as The Great Wall of Vagina and is championed around the world as a game changer in the fight against genital shaming.

Significant Works

The Spice Of Life

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